This time, Eagles' comeback falls short

Suisham kicks 34-yard field goal on final play to lift Pittsburgh to 16-14 victory.

October 07, 2012|By Nick Fierro, Of The Morning Call

PITTSBURGH — — After three come-from-behind wins in the fourth quarter, the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday received a dose of their own medicine and yet another lesson for their quarterback about the value of taking care of the football in the NFL.

Whether Michael Vick will ever learn it remained the biggest question coming out of their 16-14 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on a 34-yard field goal by Shaun Suisham as time expired at Heinz Field.

Vick fumbled three times, losing two of them in the first half, helping the Steelers (2-2) gain a 10-0 lead. His season turnover total is up to 11 in just five games.

That the Eagles (3-2) put together another great second-half effort didn't matter this time, as the Steelers and two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger calmly responded to a go-ahead Eagles touchdown by marching 64 yards in 14 plays to set up Suisham for the winning kick.

Twice Roethlisberger converted on third down while the Steelers controlled the ball for the final 6:33, thanks in part to the Eagles having only one timeout left after finally forging ahead on a 2-yard pass from Vick to Brent Celek.

That play, followed by Alex Henery's extra point with 6:38 to go, came immediately after the defense bent but didn't break, holding the Steelers to a field goal and keeping the game within reach at 13-7.

"They made one more play than us," Eagles safety Kurt Coleman said.

Not to mention two less turnovers that left Vick at a loss for words.

"I wish I could tell [why they're still happening]," he said, "but I don't have any explanation.

"... I mean, it's football. Things happen. I wish I could take back the fumble on the goal line. The guy just put his helmet on a good spot. He put his helmet right on the ball. I tried to protect it but it came out, and I can't do anything about it."

On Vick's first fumble, the Eagles had first-and-goal from the 3-yard line. Vick took off for the end zone on a quarterback draw and was met hard at the goal line by Ryan Clark, who knocked the ball loose. Larry Foote recovered for Pittsburgh.

Foote recovered Vick's second fumble as well, late in the first quarter, and though neither turnover led to any Steelers points, they took their toll on the Eagles' eventual fate.

"You get down there, you have to convert," running back LeSean McCoy said. "You have to get at least three. We get three there [instead of Vick's first fumble], who knows? It's a different ballgame."

Roethlisberger was sufficiently harassed by another great defensive effort into a performance more worthy of a loss than a win. But the Eagles' early misplays put him in position to make up for hitting on only 21 of 37 attempts for 207 yards with a signature drive that might have kept the Steelers' season from beginning to spiral out of control.

Roethlisberger found Antonio Brown for a 20-yard gain on third-and-12, then came out of the two-minute warning and completed a 7-yard pass to Emmanuel Sanders on third-and-four, forcing the Eagles to burn their final timeout at 1:53.

From there, the Steelers were able to keep it on the ground and run the clock to Suisham's winning attempt.

"The turnovers really hurt us," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "You just can't do that in a stadium on the road against a good football team. You just can't do it."

On the other hand ...

"I saw some good things," Reid said. "I know that's hard to see right now. There were some good things we can take out of this."

Mainly, the 17-play drive that Vick (20-of-30, 175 yards, two TDs, no picks) directed to give the Eagles their first and only lead. It included two third-down conversions and two fourth-down conversions and ate 8:27 off the clock.

The Eagles had closed the gap to three points in the third quarter when Vick connected with McCoy on a 15-yard scoring pass.

McCoy, however, was limited to just 53 yards on 15 carries as the Steelers kept the Eagles from doing any major damage on the ground, like Philadelphia did in a 19-17 victory over the New York Giants the week before.

The Steelers ran the ball effectively for the first time this season, getting a combined 125 yards on 27 carries from Isaac Redman and Rashard Mendenhall, who was playing his first game since offseason ACL surgery.

"I thought it was a good start [for Mendenhall]," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "He's always a highly conditioned guy. Obviously he has to get a little bit more ball security. It was a great place to begin, and I thought he not only ran well and hard and caught the ball, but he was a source of energy for the unit."

Mendenhall scored on a 13-yard run to cap a 75-yard drive and Suisham kicked a 20-yard field goal to send the Steelers to halftime with a 10-0 lead.

Suisham's first field goal came with two seconds remaining in the first half, after Jason Babin and DeMeco Ryans broke up a third-down pass at the goal line.